Nghia N Nghia

Great Vietnamese «Streetfood».
Great taste, great prices and a very relaxed atmosphere! Funky tunes in the background… a must-​visit when you’re in Amsterdam!

Nghia n Nghia???
That’s a looooot of ‘N’ in the name and don’t ask how it’s pronounced… you’ll just laugh at what it sounds like…
It looks like the creators of Chow, Jimmy Woo, and Saigon Café have extended their Asian food empire by now offering Vietnamese street food at the Chow location during lunch hours. There is a separate entrance for NNN than Chow, but if you are a big group, you can sit in Chow and chow away at your Viet-​street food there. Speaking of which, I love Vietnamese street food so I was excited to hear about this place and try it out!
If you’ve been to Vietnamese restaurants before, you won’t find anything new. Banh Mi, Phở, Bun and Goi Cuon. That’s pretty much it. Here’s the break down…
First I started with Café Sua Da which is traditional Vietnamese coffee. They use the vietnamese coffee drippers which was a definite plus and to sweeten it they use condensed milk. Of course it can’t be like in Vietnam, but close to it.
Banh Mi (baguette sandwich) — If you want a more traditional Banh Mi, you should get the pork one. I thought it wasn’t bad, but if you’ve had them before you won’t be wowed.
Goi Cuon (spring roll) — At some point, I heard someone at our table say «there’s a cookie in it!». When I looked over, he was eating a goi cuon and there was something crunchy in there? To be fair, when you make goi cuon at home, you can put whatever you want in there, but normally at a restaurant, it should be the norm. When you order this, you will only get one goi cuon cut in half, so just be aware of that.
Bun — This is the dish I usually order at Vietnamese restaurants (Bun with pork). On the menu they call it a salad, but it’s more rice noodles, meat, some veggies and then you mix it all together like a salad and eat it. I will have to say that it was the smallest portion of Bun I’ve ever seen! I felt bad for my friend next to me who was eating it and finished before I finished my third bite of phở! Normally I recommend this for first time Vietnamese eaters, but it for sure didn’t look appetizing.
Phở — Now for the main! Looking for phở-​rmidable phở is difficult and alas, the search continues. They only have Phở Dac Biet (combination meat with raw thin beef slices, beef brisket and the fatty parts) I don’t normally get this since I like Phở Tai (raw thin beef only). If you eat this, you should put hoison and sriracha sauce in it for added flavor and spice, but even with that, I just couldn’t taste much…
I reaaaaaaaally reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally wanted to like this place, but I don’t think I’ll be back. If you’ve never had Vietnamese food, I would stick with the phở and banh mi and you might like it. If you are used to Vietnamese food, you’ll phở sho’ be dissappointed…